Local Review: Theta Naught – Something Scientific

Theta NaughtSomething Scientific

Eden’s Watchtower

Theta Naught put the mental back into instrumental. All instrumental all the time, their aptly titled Something Scientific bypasses the borders of known quantum mechanics, not through math metal, as may be expected by the album title, but via the vessel of abstract, mellow, Mazzy Star alterna-rock. They’re mathematical in a classical music, Mozart type of way, dig. Their use of guitarorgan, lap steel, cello, keys, xylophone and something called a theramin will buoy up your spirits on the bleakest of Monday mornings with flowing, seamless melodicism, and occasionally will have you shaking your boo-tay with pulsing rockers like “Engineering to the Bridge,” with its Joy Division-like bass line. My only complaint is that sometimes the music is not in tune with the keys.